Apparatus, system and method for sensing to locate persons in a building in the event of a disaster

ABSTRACT

An apparatus, system and method that assesses the number and location of persons in a building. The invention may include none, one, two or more emitters, at least one sensor that senses reflected radiation indicative of a modification to the emitted radiation from multiple ones of the at least two emitters, and a communicative network, wherein sensing data from the at least one doppler sensor is forwarded to a remote central hub that manipulates the sensing data to an indication of the number and the location of the persons in the building. The sensors of the present invention may be, for example, doppler sensors, or any like sensor that senses biologically caused fluctuations within a monitored environment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is directed to remote sensing and, moreparticularly, to an apparatus, system and method for sensing to locatepersons in a building in the event of a disaster.

2. Description of the Background

In the existing art, buildings are typically designed with disasteravoidance in mind, that is, buildings are designed to withstand certaintypes of disasters. However, as was evidenced by the terrorist attacksin New York City on Sep. 11, 2001, if disasters not envisioned by thedesigners of the buildings occur, the results can be catastrophic.Nonetheless, the existing art necessitates that disaster types, andtherefore effects, be known in advance in order to save lives. Further,the present art offers no way to assess, in the event of an unexpecteddisaster, what design effects perform best in the event to save lives.

Additionally, at present, although some larger buildings do havesecurity that tracks the total number of people in a building, or eventthe approximate number of people on a floor or group of floors of thebuilding, it is rare that building management has any methodologywhereby it can even approximate where people are within the building.Yet further, any methodology whereby the precise location of peoplewithin the building can be tracked is non-existent.

The lack of any such precise tracking technology is shocking in view ofrecent events, and particularly terrorist events, in which non-survivorstook months to locate, and in which some survivors were similarly deemednon-survivors for months after such events. Needless to say, suchconfusion would be remedied by a system that gave the precise locationsof all persons within the building at the moment of any event.

Finally, again in view of recent events, the available art fails toprovide a methodology whereby first responders can be informed of whereto focus life-saving efforts. Thus, for example, in the event of adisaster affecting a high-rise building, first responders may spendpriceless minutes endeavoring to get onto the 21^(st) floor although,unbeknownst to those first responders, all survivors who did not get outare located on the 23^(rd) floor.

Thus, the need exists for an apparatus, system and method that providessensor-locating of persons in a building in the event of a disaster, andthat first provides such information to a central dispatch or processingcenter, whereby such information may be provided to first responderseither at dispatch or in route.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention includes an apparatus, system and method thatassesses the number and location of persons in a building. The presentinvention may include none, one, two or more emitters, at least onesensor that senses reflected radiation indicative of a modification tothe emitted radiation from multiple ones of the at least two emitters,and a communicative network, wherein sensing data from the at least onedoppler sensor is forwarded to a remote central hub that manipulates thesensing data to an indication of the number and the location of thepersons in the building.

The sensors of the present invention may be, for example, dopplersensors, or any like sensor that senses biologically caused fluctuationswithin a monitored environment. Such sensors may be used in a manner toprovide a triangulation of the location of the persons in the monitoredenvironment.

The remote central hub of the present invention may indicate to at leastfirst responders the number and the location of the persons in thebuilding. Thereby, the present invention may allow for first respondersto prepare for care of a certain number of persons, or persons havingcertain characteristics with regard to caregiving, or may allow forfirst responders to understand where to focus rescue or recoveryefforts.

Thus, the present invention provides an apparatus, system and methodthat provides sensor-locating of persons in a building in the event of adisaster, and that first provides such information to a central dispatchor processing center, whereby such information may be provided to firstresponders either at dispatch or in route.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The present invention will be described hereinbelow in conjunction withthe following figures, in which like numerals represent like items, andwherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

It is to be understood that the figures and descriptions of the presentinvention have been simplified to illustrate elements that are relevantfor a clear understanding of the present invention, while eliminating,for the purposes of clarity, many other elements found in typicalsensing apparatuses, systems and methods. Those of ordinary skill in theart will recognize that other elements are desirable and/or required inorder to implement the present invention. However, because such elementsare well known in the art, and because they do not facilitate a betterunderstanding of the present invention, a discussion of such elements isnot provided herein.

It is frequently the case, particularly for emergency responsepersonnel, that, in the event of a disaster, it becomes of the utmostimportance to know whether there are persons remaining in a buildingand, if so, where those remaining persons are located. Thereby,emergency response personnel can target particular areas in order tomaximize the number of lives saved, can locate survivors in the event ofcertain structural failures, or can locate non-survivors in the event anemergency response is unsuccessful. Further, such information allows foremergency response personnel to know the numbers of survivors, thenumbers of non-survivors, and similar information. Finally, suchinformation may be used in engineering practices, such as an order toassess where survivors are in the event of a structural failure, therebyallowing for reverse engineering to assess why those persons survived,that is, to understand what was unique about the structural componentsof that particular portion of structure in which those persons survived.Needless to say, such information would prove extraordinarily useful inthe event of earthquake, fire, flood, terrorist attack, or other naturalor manmade disaster.

The present invention provides an apparatus, system and method wherebyfactors ranging from the number of people, by location, in a building tothe precise size and position of people within a building, may beassessed. Thus, response personnel may be informed, in real time, of thelocation and/or additional factors with regard to all persons at aparticular location at the precise moment of any event that occurs atthat location. Further, the present invention not only dynamicallymonitors those persons at the location of interest, but providesimproved convenience over the prior art in that the present inventiondoes not necessitate the use of RFID tags, badges, uniforms, or the likein order to allow such persons to be monitored.

The present invention may be employed in or with public or privatefacilities, including, for example, office buildings, schools,libraries, hospitals, or the like. As such, the present invention may beused at any time and in any place to ensure that it is known by anyresponse personnel that persons are present, and where those persons areor were, so that no such person is left behind in the event of adisaster.

In an exemplary embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, the present inventionmay be employed in a hospital environment, wherein persons are trackedmoving in and out of open areas, rooms, stations, and the like. Suchpersons, it goes without saying, may be tracked regardless of theirstatus, such as being tracked whether they are walking, being wheeled ona gurney, sleeping in a bed, moving in a wheelchair, or the like.Further, in certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention, notonly may the presence of such persons and their location be tracked, butthe status of such persons may likewise be tracked, that is, threepersons in a wheel chair may be located in the east wing, and eleven ofthe fourteen rooms on the hospital's sixth floor may be occupied bybedridden patients. Thereby, in the event of a disaster, it is knownwhere and how many people are located at the moment of the event, andfurther the status of each such person may be known as well as his orher ability to respond in the case of the disastrous event.

Additionally and alternatively, as also illustrated in FIG. 1, personsmay be tracked only in certain circumstances that allow for a continuousknowledge of their respective positions. For example, in certainenvironments in which there is only a single point of ingress and egressto each room, such as from a hallway into each office in an officebuilding, or into each room of a hospital, persons may be tracked onlywhile in that hallway, and if the person disappears from the monitoringat the location of a door, it is thus known that that person is in theroom correspondent to the door at which he/she left the monitoring view.Thus, because the door is the only point of ingress and egress to andfrom the room, it may be assumed that a person disappearing into theroom is still in the room until it is sensed that the person has emergedfrom the room. In such an exemplary embodiment, either solely the numberof persons entering a room without leaving may be used to calculate thenet number of persons still in the room at a given time, withoutuniquely identifying those persons still in the room, or additionalcharacteristics of each person entering the room may be monitored inorder to uniquely identify who is still in the room at any given time.Thereby, in the event of a disaster, in this exemplary embodiment it isknown where and how many people are located at the moment of the event,and further the status of each such person may be known as well as hisor her ability to respond in the case of the disastrous event, withoutneed of placing sensors inside every room within a building, and withoutexpending time and/or funds monitoring inside each room of a monitoredenvironment.

Thus, the present invention provides the ability to track the locationand movement of persons in any environment that may be subject to adisaster. The system of the present invention is automatic, and thusnever requires the inconvenience of RF badges, RF tags, or the like tobe carried or worn by persons in the environment. The present inventionis dynamic, at least in that reports may be sent in real time to remotemonitoring stations, wherein the remote monitoring stations may monitorone or multiple such environments simultaneously. Additionally, althoughthe present invention may used to identify not only the existence andmovement of a person, but additionally certain characteristics of theperson, the present invention may further be implemented so as to notmonitor characteristics or identities of persons, such as in the eventthe present invention is implemented in a secure environment.

The present invention may be implemented, as illustrated in FIG. 2, by aplacement of a plurality of sensors and/or detectors in an environmentto be monitored, and by connection of those sensors via a communicationnetwork to one or more central monitoring hubs. Those skilled in the artwill understand that such communication networks would include, forexample, the internet, an intranet, an extranet, a cabled communicationsnetwork, a fiber optic communications network, a cellular telephonecommunications network, a satellite communications network, or the like.Further, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the one or moreremote monitoring stations may continuously monitor each monitoredenvironment, may periodically monitor each monitored environment, or mayreceive batch indications regarding each environment and may monitorsuch batches continuously or periodically. Of course, the monitoringstations may receive signals indicative of disasters in one or more ofthe monitored environments, disasters in any environment, and in sodoing may receive raw signals directly from the environment sensors, orprocessed signals from the environment sensors, wherein such processingmay be performed remotely in the monitored environment and/or may beperformed at the central monitoring station upon receipt of an incomingsensor signal.

The sensors and/or detectors of the present invention may be anyindividual sensor and/or matched sensor-detector pairs as will beunderstood by those skilled in the art. Such sensors or sensor detectorpairs may be used to detect, for example, biological fluctuations andbiologically caused fluctuations, such as biomass, floor pressure, airpressure, heat, doppler shift, or the like, certain of which may usedetection principles known to those skilled in the art, such as: radarprinciples, such as measuring distance using a short pulse of radiosignal and measuring the time taken for a reflection to return based onthe pulse sent; phase or frequency variations in return signals from asignal sent; and/or doppler shift principles, wherein radiationreflected from a moving object presents a different wavelength at adetector from the wavelength of the signal initially projected. Ofcourse, those skilled in the art will appreciate that, employing sensorsapplying certain of these exemplary principles in the present inventionmay dictate that either the emitted radiation from the sensor/detectormust be in motion relative to the target person, or the person must bemoving through the emitted radiation, in order for the target person tobe sensed.

In certain radar-based and/or doppler shift sensing environments,emitted radiation may occur in a fan pattern, such as in a hallway asillustrated in FIG. 1. When a portion of the fan is broken where it hadbeen previously unbroken, it is known that a person is in that vector ofthe fan. Likewise, when a fan is broken in a linear sequence, and the issuddenly unbroken at the location of a doorway, it is known that aperson entered the room correspondent to the known doorway. In suchembodiments, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art thatbeam steering and/or emitted radiation pulsing may be employed.

Similarly, in such radar-based and/or doppler shift sensingenvironments, triangulation may be employed in order to assess not onlydistance from a sensor to an object and/or movement or speed changes byan object in a particular environment, but to additionally pinpoint thespecific location of a stationary or moving person within a portion of amonitored environment. In such an embodiment, radiation may be disbursedfrom two or more emitters, and any number of the aforementionedcharacteristics may be detected at one or more detectors after thedisbursed radiation is reflected from the one or more persons or objectswithin the portion of the environment being monitored. Such radiationdisbursements may be constant, pulsed, or on only upon occurrence of atriggering event, such as a disaster. Likewise, the detection may beconstant pulsed, or only upon occurrence of a triggering event.

Needless to say, in an embodiment wherein vectoring and/ortriangulation, is performed, it is preferred that the emitted signal notbe of the same frequency for more than one of any proximate group ofmultiple radiation emitters. That is, for example, in an exemplaryembodiment in which two emitters and one detector are employed, each ofthe emitters emits at a different frequency such that a single detectorcan sense the return signal for each frequency separately, and therebyassess, for example, a doppler shift and/or a distance to one or morepersons in the monitored environment, and thereby triangulate thelocation of a person within the monitored environment. Similarly, ifmultiple emitters are placed in a hallway with overlapping fields inorder to present optimal beam coverage of the hallway, such overlappingfields may preferably be of different frequencies.

In an exemplary environment, 24 GHz and/or 60 GHz doppler, or similarmicrowave level radiation, may be employed, and a spread may be assignedto the emitted radiation to best ensure that persons at variouslocations without a monitored environment, and of variable heights, maybe sensed through the use of the present invention. Thus, for example inthe aforementioned exemplary embodiment, a one degree spread may beemployed. Further, particularly in microwave embodiments of the presentinvention, it is preferable that only low power radiation be employed,such as in the range of 5 mW. Additionally and alternatively, otherfrequency ranges may be used in the present invention, such as to avoidinterference with equipment in a monitored environment. For example,ultrasound frequencies may be employed in hallways in a hospitalenvironment, such as in order to avoid interference with caregivingequipment. It almost goes without saying that the aforementionedfrequencies, spread and/or power levels are exemplary in nature, andmyriad other frequencies, spreads and/or power levels may be employedwith the present invention.

Additionally, as will be understood by those skilled in the art in lightof the discussion herein, multiple vertical levels of the aforementionedvectoring and/or triangulation may be employed, such as to provide avertical axis to monitor the height of persons within an environment.Through the use of a vertical axis, persons situated in differentcircumstances, such as in a hospital at wheelchair height, at gurneyheight, or at adult standing height, may be uniquely assessed and/oridentified.

In additional and alternative embodiments, vectoring and/ortriangulation may be employed using multiple direct biosensors. Forexample, two biosensors that sense, for example, electromagnetic energyemitted from persons in a monitored environment, heat emitted frompersons in a monitored environment, or pressure changes produced in amonitored environment, may be calibrated and used to assess, for eachsensor, distance to the person causing the environmental change.Thereby, triangulation may be employed using the two or more sensors, ofthe same or different types, to locate the one or more persons in themonitored environment.

In the exemplary embodiment of the present invention illustrated in FIG.3, a sensing unit for a matching sensing-detector pair is placed in aparticular coverage area on the ground floor of a hospital. FIG. 4illustrates an embodiment wherein multiple sensors and/or sensordetector pairs are placed throughout the ground floor of a hospitalenvironment in order to improve coverage area. Of note, with respect toFIG. 4, it may be preferred that multiple sensors and/or sensor detectorpairs may be used in order to create overlapping fields, therebyensuring that no locations in a particular coverage area go unmonitoredthrough the use of the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary embodiment in which a dispatcher forfirst responders monitors the monitored environment through the use ofthe present invention, such as through the use of the monitoring stationillustrated in FIG. 2. In the illustrated exemplary environment,multiple sensors and/or sensor detector pairs are controlled by a “floorcontroller”, wherein the floor controller may be one of multiple floorcontrollers that locally or substantially locally control the sensorswithin one or more buildings and/or monitored environments. The floorcontrollers may include signal processing capabilities, and maycommunicate with one or more in-house servers, wherein the one or morein-house servers may be any server or server type known to those skilledin the art. The in-house server, to the extent included in thisexemplary embodiment, may then communicate with an external server thatin turn communicates with a first response dispatcher. The remoteexternal server may communicate with the in-house server via any wiredor wireless communication methodology known to those skilled in the art.Likewise, the floor controller may communicate with the sensors via anywired or wireless communication technologies known in the art, and eachfloor controller may communicate via available wired or wirelesstechnologies known in the art with the in-house server.

FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of the present invention wherein a firehas occurred in the area referred to as a cleaning supply closet. Thefire alarm in the hospital has sounded, and each person within thebuilding upon occurrence of the fire and sounding of the fire alarm isreferenced in FIG. 6 by a particular number. Following the occurrence ofthe fire alarm, those persons referred to by an uncircled number intheir most recent location have escaped the building. However, thosepersons referred to by numbers with a white circle around the number inFIG. 6 represent persons who did not escape the building, and thus arepresumably in or near the last referenced location illustrated in FIG.6. Thereby, first responders responding to the fire at the hospital mayreceive the information of any parties, and the location of thoseparties, who not escape the building upon occurrence of the fire alarm.Such information may, for example, be telephonically or otherwiserelayed to the first responders, or, through the use of the detailed mapGUI feature of the present invention, may be downloaded in anenvironment map format to the first responders while the firstresponders are enroute to the disaster location.

It will be understood to those skilled in the art that the use of thepresent invention may include preliminary setup of the sensors and/orsensor detectors of the present invention in empty rooms, such as toassess the location of background noise, interference, furniture orother stationery objects, other sensors, walls, doorways, and the like,so that such items may be accounted for to eliminate false alarms and/ornon-alarms when the present invention is employed. For example, signalprocessing capabilities and/or software, including the user interfacesoftware illustrated in FIGS. 3, 4, and 6, may be implemented with falsealarm and/or non-alarm eliminating capabilities. Thereby, the sensorsand/or sensor detector pairs of the present invention may be themselvesused to assess those items likely to cause false alarms or non-alarms,or a preliminary map of such items may be downloaded to the software ofthe present invention in order to allow for such an assessment.

Although the invention has been described and pictured in an exemplaryform with a certain degree of particularity, it is understood that thepresent disclosure of the exemplary form has been made by way ofexample, and that numerous changes in the details of construction andcombination and arrangement of parts and steps may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention and the claimsappended hereto.

1. A system that assesses the number and location of persons in abuilding, comprising: at least two emitters; at least one doppler sensorthat senses reflected radiation indicative of a reflection off of atleast one person of the emitted radiation from multiple ones of the atleast two emitters; and a communicative network, wherein sensing datafrom at least one of the at least one doppler sensors is forwarded to aremote central hub that manipulates the sensing data to an indication ofthe number and the location of the persons in the building; wherein theremote central hub indicates to at least first responders the number andthe location of the persons in the building.
 2. The system of claim 1,wherein the location further comprises an indication of a physicalfactor of each of the persons in the building.
 3. The system of claim 1,wherein the indication to first responders comprises a real timeindication.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the building comprises oneselected from the group consisting of an office building, a school, alibrary, and hospitals.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the at leasttwo emitters and at least one sensor comprise a triangulation.
 6. Thesystem of claim 5, wherein the triangulation comprises a horizontalplane triangulation.
 7. The system of claim 6, wherein the horizontalplane comprises a spread from each of the at least two emitters aboutthe horizontal plane.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein the spreadcomprises one degree.
 9. The system of claim 1, wherein thecommunication network comprises at least one selected from the groupconsisting of the internet, an intranet, an extranet, a cabledcommunications network, a fiber optic communications network, a cellulartelephone communications network, and a satellite communicationsnetwork.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensing data isforwarded to the remote central hub at least one of continuously,periodically, or by batch.
 11. The system of claim 1, wherein thesensing data forwarded comprises raw data.
 12. The system of claim 1,wherein the sensing data forwarded comprises processed data.
 13. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein one of the at least two emitters comprisesone selected from the group consisting of a 24 GHz emitter and a 60 GHzemitter.
 14. A system that assesses the number and location of personsin a building, comprising: at least two biological fluctuation sensors,wherein each of said at least two biological fluctuation sensors arelocated in at least two separate portions of the building; and acommunicative network, wherein sensing data from each of said at leasttwo biological fluctuation sensors is forwarded to a remote central hubthat manipulates the sensing data to an indication of the number and thelocation of the persons in the building; wherein the remote central hubindicates to at least first responders the number and the location ofthe persons in the building.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein thebiological fluctuations comprise at least one of biomass, floorpressure, air pressure, heat, and emitted electromagnetic field.
 16. Thesystem of claim 14, wherein the biological fluctuation comprises areflection.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein the sensing datacomprises a time for the reflection to return to a sensor after emissionfrom an emitter.
 18. The system of claim 16, wherein the sensing datacomprises a phase variation in the reflection from an emission by anemitter.
 19. The system of claim 16, wherein the sensor data comprises afrequency variation in the reflection from an emission by an emitter.20. The system of claim 16, wherein the reflection comprises a dopplershift.
 21. The system of claim 14, wherein the sensing data comprises atriangulation of at least two biological fluctuation sensors.